Canzano: As Willie Lyles talks, Chip Kelly loses some credibility

View full sizeThe Associated PressChip Kelly hasn't seen much trouble during games as Oregon's head coach, but off-the-field woes are mounting.

I spoke with University of Oregon football coach Chip Kelly in early March, amid reports that a Texas man named Willie Lyles was involved in a recruiting scandal that could bring down the Ducks program.

Kelly told me he didn't know who Willie Lyles was.

I believed him.

That same evening, a Yahoo Sports story reported that Lyles was paid $25,000 by Oregon. So I texted Kelly, asking him why he lied to me, and we ended up on the telephone, where Kelly insisted I'd confused him by asking about "Willie Lyles." He said, "around here, we call him 'Will.' We've already distanced ourselves from him, trust me."

Those materials, Lyles said, were taken from his laptop and explain why he provided outdated and incomplete materials to the Ducks. Also, Lyles said he was involved in helping get LaMichael James eligible and in Eugene, and also, helped coordinate the signing of Lache Seastrunk's national letter of intent.

Not the stuff of a scouting service. And the hunch here is that the NCAA is going to circle back and interview Lyles again. The more he talks, the worse this gets for Oregon.

Lyles told Yahoo, "I look back at it now and they paid for what they saw as my access and influence with recruits. The service I provided went beyond what a scouting service should. ... I made a mistake and I'm big enough of a man to admit I was wrong."

I don't care for Lyles. But I find him credible. His story checks out just fine. Phone records show he talked to Kelly and Ducks assistants when he said he did. His explanation of the scouting materials fits with the documents Oregon released last month.

So it feels as though we've arrived at the beginning of the end of Kelly as the Ducks coach.

He may not be fired by Oregon. Kelly may not resign his position. But he's lost his footing, and if he's lied to NCAA investigators, they won't go easy on the Ducks should Oregon keep Kelly around.

I know. Oregon's position is that it feels like it's done nothing wrong here. If they believe that in their souls, I'll worry about them. But if Oregon hasn't already called Kelly on the carpet, it's the preservation of the institution that should be on the minds of administrators there today.

The NCAA will want to know who's in charge in Eugene?

Because what we have in Kelly is a guy with no prior experience as a head coach who took over the job while a pair of inexperienced athletic directors (Pat Killkenny and Mike Bellotti) were on watch. And you can't help but connect all of that and wonder if Oregon simply lost its way for a couple of years.

Was the lack of experience in those key positions how the Ducks ended up here today? Was anyone at all paying attention? And if this Kelly thing blows up in the worst way, is it possible that Bellotti could end up back on the sideline at Autzen?

All fair questions. And all of them will wait until after the NCAA sorts through the wreckage behind Lyles, and determines which rules were broken, and which were simply circumvented craftfully.

I covered Jerry Tarkanian for three seasons, and encountered characters such as Lyles in droves. Tark knew the rules and lived comfortably in the gray areas. A wise newspaper editor, frustrated with Tarkanian's ability to slip the blame, announced in the newsroom, "We only go to print if it's a shot to the heart."

That Yahoo report was a kill shot.

The NCAA will most certainly have more questions. And whether Oregon's big offense is breaking a rule, or scrambling to cover things up, becomes secondary to me. Now, I just mostly want to see the UO grab control of this spiraling situation and start acting like a place of higher learning.

Journalists shouldn't be policing the program. The summer shouldn't be spent scrambling.

I suspect Oregon is spending most of its time right now searching for the cleanest route out of this Lyles mess. The Ducks silence is deafening right now. And I suspect the quotable Kelly is bouncing off the walls, wanting to fire back at Lyles.

The Ducks didn't need Lyles. They were winning games without his help. And yeah, I'm a sucker because when I saw Oregon suit up against Auburn and controversial quarterback Cam Newton in the national title game, I believed the Ducks were the ones doing it the right way.

I'm not sure either team did after hearing the information coming from Lyles.